October 27 – Day 21 – Return home to Mound City

For the second game in the row, Jonathan Toews (assisted by Patrick Kane and Brent Seabrook) scored the overtime winner, this one at the :51 mark, to lead the Chicago Blackhawks to a 1-0 victory over the Anaheim Ducks.

Corey Crawford took the win after stopping all 39 shots the Ducks sent his way to elevate his record to 5-2-0, while Frederik Andersen’s record falls to 0-3-2 after giving up the lone goal on 24 shots (95.8%).

The DtFR Game of the Day series now stands at 12-5-3 for the home team, nine points ahead of the roadies.

After a couple days straight of only three games on the schedule, it’s a busy Tuesday in the NHL with 10 games to be contested. The first three games will get their start at 7 p.m. eastern (Arizona at Boston, Columbus at New Jersey and Buffalo at Philadelphia [TVAS/BELL TV]), followed half an hour later by two more matchups (Carolina at Detroit and Colorado at Florida). Another triplet of games drop the opening puck at 8 p.m. eastern (Tampa Bay at St. Louis [NBCSN/SN1], Edmonton at Minnesota and Los Angeles at Winnipeg [TSN3]) with an Anaheim at Dallas chaser 30 minutes later. Finally, the evening’s nightcap gets started at 10 p.m. eastern when Mighty Montréal visits Vancouver (RDS).

Columbus at New Jersey is the only divisional rivalry being played tonight, but has the competition of two games between teams currently qualifying for the playoffs (Tampa Bay at St. Louis and Los Angeles at Winnipeg). Of these three, only one is being broadcast nationally in both nations, plus Ben Bishop will return home to play before his hometown fans, so the game at the Scottrade Center will be our Game of the Day.

Starting with the road side, we find a Tampa Bay team coming off an overtime shutout loss to the Blues‘ archrivals (bad pun intended) that has found early success this season. Currently, the Bolts and their potent offense have 12 points to their name with a 5-2-2 record, which is good enough for second in the Atlantic Division and fourth in the Eastern Conference (of course, second is as good as first in that division since Montréal doesn’t look like they’ll ever lose). That offense has scored 27 goals this season, exceeding the league average by five tallies. They’ve put 243 shots on net so far (exceeding the league average by four), and scored on 11.1% of those attempts (dwarfing the league average by 2.1%). One player responsible for this success is Captain Steven Stamkos, who leads the team in total goals (five) and power play goals (two), and is tied for the lead in both even strength goals (with Vladislav Namestnikov, three) and game-winners (with Jason Garrison, Nikita Kucherov, Alex Killorn and Ondrej Palat, one).

Netminder Bishop (5-2-1) has also had a solid start to his season, as the Lightning have only given up 24 goals so far (two over the league average). The team’s collective save percentage of .915 is exactly on par with the rest of the league.

Probably the worst aspect of this Tampa Bay team has been their penalty kill. They’ve given up two more power play goals than the league average (seven and five, respectively) on two fewer opportunities. As you can expect, their penalty kill percentage is showing it: their 72% kill rate is 9.41% below average. If the special teams cannot figure out how to kill penalties better, Nikita Nesterov may find himself riding the bench, being scratched, or even worse, sent back to Syracuse if he cannot get his team leading 17 PIM down (he leads the second highest by nine minutes with only three games played).

Turning our attention to the 5-2-1 home squad, we find another team coming off another overtime loss, this one a 3-2 final against the Isles, but the Notes did manage to score two goals in the second period to earn a point in the standings. They currently own the fourth position in both the competitive Central Division and Western Conference table.

While the Bolts may be more offensively-minded, the Blues have utilized a more balanced approach and relied on their defense and goaltending for success this season. St. Louis has scored only one goal over the 22-goal league average, but have kept two more goals off the board than the rest of the NHL this season. Tonight’s starter Jake Allen (Brian Elliott is recovering from illness) owns a 1-2-0 record with a .899 save percentage and 3.02 GAA.

Luckily for Tampa Bay, the Blues‘ major shortcoming so far this season has been the power play, as they only have four goals to show for 29 opportunities (13.79%, 4.8% below league average).

Inversely, the Blues have done very well on the penalty kill this season. Although their kill percentage trails the league average by .16%, they’ve had to defend against five more than the typical team. Should that stat continue, the Blues will be able to physically impose their will on a consistent basis to earn some man-advantages for themselves.

The Blues beat the Bolts in both games played last season, led by RW Vladimir Tarasenko’s two goals and Alexander Steen’s goal and two assists.

Some players to watch in tonight’s game include St. Louis‘ Tarasenko (leads squad in shots [36], points [nine]and goals [five]; tied for squad lead in even-strength goals [four], even-strength assists [four], power play goals [one] and game-winners [one]) and Tampa Bay‘s Bishop (five wins [tied for second in the league]).

This will be a tight game and one worth watching. I’m inclined to give the advantage to the Notes in this one, simply because they’re playing at home.